Saturday 24 July 2010

Dolly's Tragedy...

Kim writes:

When Dolly lost her baby in 1980, was it defined as a stillbirth or a miscarriage?

I don't recall hearing the phrase "stillbirth" back then, Kim - apart perhaps from babies who died when the mother was actually giving birth.

Dolly referred to her loss as a miscarriage in 1980.

She had announced her pregnancy in July 1979. Annie Sugden, in a monologue bringing viewers up-to-date with Beckindale news in early 1980, stated that Dolly had been taken into hospital just after the New Year came in. She lost the baby not long afterwards.

I know that times change and there are various technical definitions of a stillbirth, depending on the location, but certainly way back then in England the word I heard used for losses into late pregnancy was miscarriage.

And this was the word Dolly Skilbeck used in Emmerdale Farm.

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